The Eussen Lifestyle and Melbourne Polytechnic LiveStyling competition for design students has once again produced some innovative and unique design ideas, this year in the realm of office space. Check out the winner!

For the second year running students of the Diploma of Interior Design and Decoration have competed to recreate the shopfront space at Melbourne Polytechnic’s Prahran campus through the LiveStyling student competition. Last year it was apartments, but this year the competition space will have a more practical use for students.

“Basically, we were given this project of creating a modern interior design office for students to work at. So, it’s going to be a 'live' office where students are going to do consultations,” says the 2017 LiveStyling winner, Sara Levitas.

“The brief basically was to make it as contemporary as possible, try to incorporate sustainable materials, and I think there was a lot of free reign in terms of the creativity,” says Sara.

As a shared office space for students, and even industry, it became apparent to Sara that the competition space would need to embrace a hot-desking set-up. For all its positives, hot-desking does present a lot of challenges, such as noise, and solving those issues became a large part of her design. Sara started with the idea that if you appreciate a place, you’ll feel comfortable working there.

Sara came into interior design with a passion, but without any experience, and found it hard to find a course that worked for her. In choosing the Melbourne Polytechnic design diploma, Sara claims she received constructive critiques of her work and good advice from her teachers that she can actually work with: “It was a big revelation for me, this educational journey that I’ve had here.”

“I just want the [office] space to be real for them. I know that in the home I create for my family, I want my kids to remember it as a happy, comfortable and warm home. And I think it makes a big difference when a space caters to that.”

Congratulations Sara, we love what you’ve done with the place!

The Melbourne Polytechnic Diploma of Interior Design and Decoration is flexible and offers students the industry experience they need to get job ready.

CLICK HERE to learn more about Melbourne Polytechnic's range of design course.